A cut above

January 29, 2014

Ice carver Robin Johnson is shaping two soldiers that will greet visitors who enter the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Ice Palace. Johnson said the most difficult aspects of ice carving are getting the sculpture's proportions correct and wielding a chainsaw, which he called "a brutal instrument of death." This is Johnson's fourth time volunteering on the Ice Palace.

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Ice carver Robin Johnson puts a chainsaw to a block of ice Tuesday afternoon as he begins shaping the first of two soldiers that will greet visitors who enter the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Ice Palace. Johnson said the most difficult aspects of ice carving are getting the sculpture’s proportions correct and wielding a chainsaw, which he called “a brutal instrument of death.” This is Johnson’s fourth time volunteering on the Ice Palace.(Enterprise photo — Shaun Kittle)

Johnson bases his sculptures on pictures, and most of them are drawn by him. Johnson found these two Celtic soldiers on the Internet, but he has a notebook filled with handdrawn dragons, thrones, fairies and unicorns, some of which will have ice-hewn counterparts in this year’s Ice Palace.(Enterprise photo — Shaun Kittle)